The Reconnaissance of Iranian Adolescent’s Perceptions of Radiology Imaging Process

 Since adolescents do not frequently refer to pediatricians or even general practitioners, hospitals and clinical standard systems are not designed to meet their needs. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify adolescent’s views and feelings of the X-ray imaging process, suggest some age-appropriate facilities to respond to their needs to have a good experience of attending to radiology centers and appropriate interactions between middle adolescents and radiographers.

In this cross-sectional study, 60 adolescents (30 girls and 30 boys) from four secondary schools participated in the study. Their opinions and feelings regarding the waiting room, the imaging room, and their interactions with the radiographers were collected using the completed questionnaire. The questionnaire has been created by the Irish researcher (Davis), and its validity and reliability have been examined.

The major complaints of adolescents (36.7%) was the lack of comfortable seats in the waiting room. They preferred watching TV in the waiting room to play music. None of the adolescent girls were nervous in the X-ray room, and 13.3% of boys stated that they were nervous. Twenty-two of the adolescents said the radiographer was quiet. 10% of girls stated that the radiographer was quite rough in dealing with them; however, none of the boys made such a statement.

Theresults showed that adolescents do not receive optimal care during X-ray imaging. It was suggested that age-appropriate educational posters to be installed on the wall, and television programs to be displayed in the radiology departments, as well as training courses on how to interact with adolescents for radiographers.